The present invention relates generally to breakaway safety fasteners. More specifically, the present invention relates to breakaway safety fasteners used in association with boundary markers and even more particularly, to re-attachable breakaway connectors for boundary markers along snow skiing trails.
At snow skiing resorts, groomed ski trails or xe2x80x9crunsxe2x80x9d are provided on the face of a mountain or hill to provide routes for skiers to descend from the top of the resort to the bottom. Many of these trails have defined boundaries. The out-of-bounds areas are often too dangerous due to the steep incline or extreme risk of avalanche danger. Further, some of these areas may be outside the ski area""s United States Forest Service (U.S.F.S.) permit area. Thus dangers in the out-of-bounds areas may be created by dense timber, steep inclines, insecure foundation for the snow beds causing avalanche concerns, insufficient snow cover, or other hazardous conditions.
In order to prevent skiers from accessing these areas, the defined boundaries are often marked by ropes, fences, or panel sheets fastened to stakes or other secure items, e.g., trees, 4xc3x974""s, or other stanchions along the boundary line. The ropes or fences not only mark the boundary, but also provide a visual and limited physical barrier to skiers attempting to travel into the out-of-bounds or closed areas.
Unfortunately, the rigidity of the ropes or fences can cause an abrupt change of velocity of the skier. Thus, skiers may be injured when striking the rope or fence while skiing or snowboarding. The force at which a skier strikes the boundary marker may cause broken bones, severe bruising or even internal injuries or death. Additionally, the abrupt change of velocity may cause injury to the head or neck of the restrained skier. Although generally designed for the skiing industry, it should be appreciated by one skilled in the art that the present invention may be used in any type of setting or industry where a boundary is identified and the potential for any person hitting the boundary at an increased velocity is present.
Thus, a significant need exists for a boundary or closed marker connection system which will provide a visual and limited physical barrier, yet minimize the injuries caused to the skier when encountering the boundary marker or rope closure at a potentially high velocity. The boundary marker connection system or rope closure should be capable of failing at a predetermined level necessary to prevent these injuries, yet providing a necessary resistance to prevent becoming detached or collapsing merely when a skier, snowboarder, or patron brushes it or during high wind conditions. Additionally, it would be desirable to provide a connection system that is capable of failing at a predetermined level but that may be reconnected in a simple and efficient manner. In this way, replacing the boundary marker takes minimal time and has minimal cost. By minimizing the time to replace the boundary, other skiers may be prevented from traveling off of the defined ski trail. Also, the cost of replacing the boundary marker prevents unnecessary cost to the operator of the ski resort.
It is thus one aspect of the present invention to provide a breakaway safety connector for use with boundary markers and rope closures which addresses the limitations of products currently known in the art by being capable of failing at a predetermined tension level. This aspect may allow for the prevention of serious injury to persons running into the boundary marker or rope closure.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide a breakaway safety connector for use with boundary markers or rope closures which is capable of being reconnected after failure, and which can thus be used repeatedly. In this way, the boundary marker or rope closure may be replaced with minimal effort and time, thereby providing others with a clear indication of boundary lines.
In yet another aspect of the invention, the device is made of a material which allows a portion of the male end to be reduced in size, and thereby reducing the tensile strength of the connector. This provides the user with a method of selecting the tensile strength desired in the connector by reducing the diameter of the connector along at the male end, thus providing a breakaway connector which can be custom designed for a variety of applications. Alternatively, it is another aspect of the present invention that the female component of the connecting end may be selectively increased in size to reduce the amount of tensile force required to separate the male component and female component.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a breakaway safety connector which is not reusable and shatters or breaks during failure when a predetermined amount of force is applied. In all embodiments, a light weight, generally inexpensive apparatus is provided which can substantially reduce the risk of injury or death to someone hitting a rope or other barrier device.
Additional advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following discussion, particularly when taken together with the accompanying drawings.